As part of a push to refresh the image of Japan’s oldest political party, the Japanese Communist Party unveiled an eight-member digital mascot team, the Proliferation Bureau, to lead this year’s campaign charge ahead of July 21 elections. The characters, including a sun who’s an anti-nuclear activist and a pink-coated labor activist named Koyo no Yoko, lead full digital lives — tweeting, doing online interviews and appearing in animated clips.

Party officials say supporters have taken political activism to a whole new level with their own Proliferation Bureau fandom.

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com